Businesses Eye Backing Away from Obamacare: Study

More mid-size employers say stepping back from health care reform would greatly improve their economic forecasts for the next year, according to a study by Deloitte Development L.L.C.

In fact, 41% of employers agree with this sentiment, up from 33% in 2012 and 23% in 2011.

“Rolling back health care reform ranked a very close second to reducing corporate tax rates as the most popular initiative the U.S. government could implement to help middle-market companies grow in the coming year,” the study said.

Larger companies appear to be more resigned to implementation of the Affordable Care Act than smaller companies, the study found, with only 38% of companies with 1,000 to 3,000 employees ranking health care rollback as one of their top two government priorities, compared to 53% of companies with 50 to 99 employees that ranked it as a top priority.

Compliance costs are especially of concern. While 71% of respondents believe compliance costs will rise, 41% of respondents anticipate high growth that exceeds other regulatory requirements.

Overall, reductions have been seen when it comes to year-over-year health care cost increases; however, 60% of mid-size employers report that medical costs are the biggest barriers to their economic growth. This is up from 51% in 2012 and 33% in 2011.

As part of health care reform, employers with more than 50 full-time workers must offer qualified, affordable group health plans to their employees in 2014 or pay a penalty.

More than a quarter of respondents say they plan to hire more part-time and contract workers in 2013 and 2014, and of the employers expecting to bring in more part-time and contract workers, 38% say they anticipate doing so specifically because of health care reform.

This article was originally published at BenefitsPro.com, a sister site of Credit Union Times.